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UiNCONDITIOXAL LOYAJyiT. 



BY 



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HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D 




r NEW YOKK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 

No. 6S3 BROADWAY. 
18G3. 



■\ 



UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 



"And the Government shall bo upon his shoulder."— Isaiah ix. 6. 

This is a part of tlie famous passag'C which sacred literature 
and the half-inspired music of Handel have rendered so familiar, 
in its application to the mission of the Messiah. Inseparable 
as it has now become from Christ's person, its original reference, 
singular as the language may appear in such a connection, was to 
an earthly monarch, Isaiah was predicting a king for Israel, who 
should be competent to free it from all its political and moral 
perplexities, and he described him in words not then esteemed 
extravagant or sacrilegious, whatever might be thought of them 
now. " For unto us a child is born ; unto us a Son is given ; 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name 
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the ever- 
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his 
government and peace there shall be no end : upon the throne 
of David and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever." 

It is instructive to bear in mind that this passage is, on Scrip- 
tural authority, applicable to human governors and to our 
Divine Master ; that the head of the Church and the head of 
the State, if not united in the same person, are spoken of in 
these solemn terms of dignity and responsibleness, as if their 
duties had a similar significance, and tiieir claims a similar, 
though not equal, importance. It is not, therefore, without 
reason that nations have used the most hallowed religious sanc- 
tions and symbols in consecrating rulers ; that they have ascribed 
a religious sanctity to a King's office, and employed phrases 



4 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 

which, :f literally untrue, were yet profoundly suggestive in 
describing the King as " reigning by divine right," and incapa- 
ble of doing wrong. We boast ourselves of having got beyond 
these political superstitions ; but if we have got beyond the 
profound truths they rudely covered, we have passed out of the 
sphere of safety and lost the anchorage of all civil security. 
Tlie head of a nation is a sacred person, representing, for the 
time he holds his office, the most valuable and solemn rights and 
duties of a people. " The Government " is " upon his shoulder," 
— and the Government is the mighty pillar that fastens in order 
and holds to safety the ten thousand varying interests, rights 
and obligations of a nation. File at the staple which God fast- 
ens to his own throne, in the oaths of office which make a man 
chief ruler of a people, and you loosen thoughtlessly every link 
in that chain of law and order, which binds society together. 
There is something in the Chief Magistrate of a people, infi- 
nitely more important than his personal qualities, his judgment, 
his intelligence, his rectitude. It is his office, his representative 
character, as the National Head. He can truly say with Louis 
XIV., " The State — it is I. Dishonor me, and you disgrace the 
nation ! Weaken me, and you undermine the country ! Speak 
or think lightly of my oath, my office, my place, and you cheapen 
yourselves, your institutions, your hopes and prospects." I know 
the attempted refinements with which a licentious Press, or a 
thoughtless public, attempt to evade their duty by distinguish- 
ing between the man and his office, despising and abusing the 
one while affecting to honor and respect the other. But practi- 
cally—in times of revolution or war, especially — there can be 
no distinction. The office is so much larger than the man, that 
any abuse directed at him, hits it in spite of the marksman. 
You cannot rudely assail the personal character or judgment of 
a Chief Magistrate without weakening public respect for the 
office he holds. This fact makes it of the utmost importance to 
select rulers whose characters and qualifications do not invite 
disrespect. But however carelessly nominated, once elected, 
they ought to be thenceforth free from the tongue of light 
criticism or coarse abuse, for their office-sake. I sin- 
cerely believe that the free-and-easy tongue of our people in 



UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 5 

discussing the personal character and chiims of our Clicf 
Magistrates, while in office, during the last twenty years, has 
contributed greatly to the demoralization of the nation, has 
clieapened the standard of qualifications for the Presidency, has 
lowered and loosened the office itself, and is, at this tiuic, per- 
haps, the chief danger in our public aflairs. If, at this moment 
we all felt as we ought to feel, that the authority of the Presi- 
dent of the United States was a sufficient rallying-cry ; tliat he 
fully represented both the expressed or constitutional and tlie 
reserved rights of the people ; that liis oath of office was solemnly 
binding, not only on him, but also on us for whom he took it ; 
that his will, in a time of civil war and universal public danger, 
was a will having an official right to our reverence and obedi- 
ence, we should escape the only utterly irremediable danger by 
which we are threatened. To rally round the President — with- 
out question or dispute — is the first and most sacred duty of 
loyal citizens, when he announces, not that the Constitution 
merely, but that the National life and existence are in peril. 
He is the official judge of this — and if we do not accept his 
testimony, we have nothing to trust to. Remember that his 
opinions are not personal but official ; not matters of individual 
judgment, or taste, or party ; but resultants of the knowledge 
and counsel and wisdom of his constitutional advisers. That lie 
speaks as the Government, and for the Government, with all 
the wisdom and capacity the Government has ; that this Gov- \ 
ernment is the only Government toe have, or can have, tvMIe the \ 
present tenure of office holds out; and that, however much wiser, ' 
its successor may be, that will not help us now. The ship of 
state is held for two years more solely by this anchor. It may 
go to wreck and ruin if that anchor parts, even though a better 
one be forging for the next term of office. To waste this sacred 
season, wdien the nation is in a struggle of life and death, and 
the Government is the physician alone responsible for applying 
the remedies for its recovery — with no possibility of calling in 
any other until too late — in abusing tlie competency, or weaken- 
ing the authority and the means of restoration in the hands of 
the attending surgeon, is the height of thoughtless folly and the 
source of infinite danger. 



6 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 

Do not mistake me as undertaking tlic defence of our present 
A.dministration on any party or personal grounds. I am only 
pleading tlic sacred cause of Government itself. I regard all 
jarty predilections and schemes, at a moment like tin's, with 
anutterable sorrow and indignation. The country should have 
but one thought — the protection of the National life, and the 
.ipholding of the constituted authorities, who alone can legiti- 
mately wield tlie power and resources of the nation, to effect 
our salvation. It is not the policy, but the strength of the 
Government that is to save us ; nor is it now this General or 
that, this measure or that, this Cabinet officer or that — who 
either blocks our way or has power to open it. Our great diffi- 
culty is the reluctance of the people to trust the Government 
with all the moral and political powers it requires, in order to 
nncld tlie whole force of the nation in defence of its life. I do 
flot wonder at tliis hesitation ; but it is nearly fatal. The 
people liavc been so long accustomed to look after their private 
fights, their personal liberties, tlieir local interests, and have, 
in a time of peace, acquainted themselves so little with the 
advantages derived from the National Government — though it 
has unconsciously all the while been showering blessings on 
their regardless heads — that they continue in a time of civil 
war — when a desperate enemy is stabbing at the heart of 
the nation, the capital, and clutching at the nation's throat, 
the Mississippi river, and while all the great empires of the 
world are in ill-concealed sympathy with this domestic foe — 
discussing questions of sectional and local importance — watch- 
ing tariffs and bank charters — fighting over petty offices, scowl- 
ing on necessary measures for incarcerating and arresting 
traitors, denying a proper legality to the suspension of habeas 
corpus — and threatening to resist any law of conscription, 
necessary to secure the military force required to make good 
the place of our retiring levies. At this present hour the Presi- 
dent of the United States could not leave the District of Colum- 
bia without being liable to arrest and imprisonment in a com- 
mon jail. And for what ? for shutting up in Lafayette, or Fort 
Henry, men who, before they went there, were spies of the ene- 
my, and more dangerous each of them than a whole regiment in 



UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. T 

the field, and wlio, the moment any clemency visits them, renew 
their old business and sow dissension and despair at home, and 
create hope and courage in Richmond ! And all this is simply 
because tlie honest people of the United States do not yet feel 
that all the State Governments and all the city and town Gov- 
ernments owe whatever is protecting and beneficent in them, 
to the oversliadowing power and greatiless of the Federal or 
National Government ; that terror and sufi"ering does not yet 
reach them, only because the Federal Government stands bleed- 
ing, but strong and resolute, between them and harm ; that it is 
now fighting their l)attles, protecting their honor and prosperi- 
ty ; doing, suffering, and daring all things for their sake ! The 
people seem to think the President's, or the Government's 
strength may be impaired and they continue strong ; that their 
local. State, or sectional prosperity, and law and order, here and 
anywhere, have no vital and necessary connection with the 
vigor and honor and power of the Federal authority. Alas ! 
what a terrible, and possibly what a fatal mistake ! Do you 
suppose that any body disloyal to the General Government is 
a friend to his own State ? Are you not seeing what that view 
of local rights, which makes the States jealous enemies of the 
National Government has brought upon the Southern members 
of this Union ? Have they not all, from being only angry 
watch-dogs and worriers of the General Government, become 
open traitors to it ? And how far from similar traitors are 
those who stand now, criticising, sneering at and resisting, as 
far as they dare, every act of the Federal authorities which 
looks to vigorous defence of National sovereignty — every 
measure that puts a thinly-disguised traitor or secessionist under 
arrest, or seeks to disembarrass the hands of tlie Government, 
full of immense responsibilities and cares, from the carping inter- 
ference of local authorities ? 

These — ^not the skill and prowess of the enemy, not foreign 
intervention, not the want of good Generals or good statesmen — 
are our real perils, — the divisions, the local interference, the 
partisan jealousies which prevent our whole people from uni ting- 
as one man in upholding the Government. The Government 
has men ; has, or can have, money ; has clear and recognized 



8 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 

duties ; lias, I believe, confideuce in its own policy, and power 
and ability to conquer the enemy ; has none of the desponden- 
cy and despair about military or naval proceedings — none of 
tiie internal strifes and divisions which afflict the people. What 
then does it want? Nothing but the full consent and approbation 
of the people — nothing but the united loyalty and confidence 
of the people, trusting it with all the necessary discretion to 
carry into execution what it judges to be essential to the very 
preservation of the National life. These discretionary powers 
Congress is slow to endorse, and not blamably, because Con- 
gress studies and must study the people, their moods, wishes 
and prejudices, and these moods I do not so much condemn as 
lament. Wliy, after twenty months, is no act legalizing the 
suspension of haheas coij^us yet passed ? I know it is not 
essential in a legal view, but how necessary for a moral effect. 
Why have the elections everywhere indicated- a desire to invigo- 
rate State Governments and private securities and personal 
rights at such an untimely hour ? Why have thoughtless dema- 
gogues or selfish politicians seized this moment, wdien Federal 
and National interests should rule supreme, to play upon the 
people's honest prejudices, by alarming them at the alleged in- 
roads on their local and personal liberties ? As if the man that 
broke do^\^l his neighbor's fence to procure a rail to fling to his 
neighbor's own child struggling in the water, was to be called 
to account for trespass while the boy was drowning ! Yet this 
is the precise spirit of local and sectional politicians, seeking to 
make their political fortunes out of the National distress, as 
many wretched traders are doing out of the National treasury. 
It is not one party, or another that is doing this, but many in 
all. Thousands who helped to put the President in office, are 
among these local and nn-national destroyers of the country's 
life — assailing the Government they made, because circum- 
stances have not allowed it to carry out a programme made for 
peace, and not for civil war. 

I repeat — for it is necessary — that I am very well aware of 
the specious grounds on which those who choose to assail the Gov- 
ernment, at a time like this, rest their disloyal behavior. They 
make the very plea the rebels made when they attempted to 



UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 9 

burn (Iowa tlic national temple — a violated Constitution. They 
are great sticklers for the letter of the Constitution. They re- 
mind one of tlic enemies of our Saviour, who were always fling- 
ing in his blessed face the authority of the ]\Iosaic law. He 
could save no life on the Sabbath-day, because tiie Mosaic Con- 
stitution forbade it! lie could pluck no corn for his starving 
disciples, because the Mosaic Constitution made no provision 
for that! He could protect and shelter no jjcnitcnt sinner, be- 
cause the Mosaic Constitution condemned her to be stoned to 
death ! He could break no yoke of moral and spiritual ignorance 
any where, because the IMosaic Constitution was thus endan- 
gered ! In short, the Pharisees and Scribes and learned and 
acute doctors of the law, blocked the just starting chariot-wheels 
of the Gospel at every foot of its progress, with some quotation 
or warning out of tlic Jewish Constitution 1 And what wduM 
the Saviour of the world have been able to acconi])lish, if he had 
not lirndy and boldly taken tlie ground, '" Tiio letter killeth,the 
spirit makclh alive ! '' If the Constitution of this country were 
what tiie enemies of the Government make it out — tiie rebels' 
best argument, the slave's worst enemy ; the soldier's greatest 
hindrance, the citizen's darkest foe, — if semi-rebels at homo 
could justly fmd their chief arguments and protection in it, the 
sooner it wore abandoned tlio better. But it is no sucli thing ! 
The friends, tlic true friends of tlie Constitution, arc those who 
love its spirit too well to allow a few specks in its body to be- 
come the ruin of its soul. They treat it as a parent treats his 
child, who, to save liis life, suflers the surgeon in cut oil' a gan- 
grenous linger or toe. If the Constitution of the United States 
were designed or fitted to obstruct the progress of public en- 
lightenment, national ethics, and Christian civilization, it would 
become the curse of the nation. There is not a national charter 
in all history that has ever been pei-mitted to do this. And is 
the Constitution of a free, democratic nuliou to l>r more wooden 
and incapalile of enlightened moral interpretation than the law 
of the British Crown, or the French or Prussian Empires ? It 
is absurd on the face of it. Because some of our fathers be- 
lieved in cruel punishments, in the selling of even white apjircn- 
tices into Slavery, in national lotteries, and in other, now uni- 



10 UXCOXDITIOXAL LOYALTY. 

versally condemned immoralities, are we tied to their errors and 
blindness, by reverence for their services ? Is the letter of the 
law to over-ride its spirit, and that, too, in dealing with rebels and 
traitors who are openly seeking to destroy our national existence? 
I yield to no man in reverence for law and order ; nay, in re- 
spect even for the law's delays, and all the various checks and 
balances by which constitutional government is secured. I be- 
lieve in the immense importance of the proper distribution and 
segregation of the legislative, ^'udicial, administrative and exe- 
cutive functions of this Government. No man can tell me any 
thing I do not now feel of the value of method, order, precedent, 
rule, in political life ! But there are times when all these things 
must be subordinated to the primal question of self-preservation. 
Has a nation less than the rights of an individual ? May it not, 
must it not defend its own existence at all hazards ? Can any 
laws, or charter, or constitution mean to rob it of the rights of 
self-preservation? Is the Constitution really violated when, 
under such a necessity, the pov;ers of the President are 
stretched beyond the ordinary reach of his office ? I say 
the Constitution is preserved, as a life is. saved, by despis- 
ing ordinary precautions and rules. The Spanish law forbids 
a subject from laying hands, on any pretence, on an Infanta 
of Spain, under penalty of instant death. Did, then, the peas- 
ant who rushed into the palace and extinguished the flames 
that enveloped a royal princess, deserve to die ? Did he 
break the law ? Yes, in the letter. No, in the spirit. And 
would he not have deserved to die a thousand deaths if he 
had regarded the letter of tlie law, wlien his liege lady was 
in instant peril of her life ? It is such fictitious violations of 
the Constitution as this, that Northern sympathizers with the 
rebellion are now seeking to make grounds of accusation against 
the true friends of the Nation, and the protectors of its life — 
such violations as the incarceration of spies, of correspondents 
witli the rebel government ; inciters of revolt in border cities ; 
editors of rebel newspapers under some thin disguise ; insolent 
slave-drivers on the now free soil of the District of Columbia ; 
of men seeking to sow divisions and disloyalty in the army 
itself ; to prevent the raising of fresh levies ; to weaken and 



UNCONDITIOXAL LOYALTY. 11 

bring into contempt the lawful power of the country. "When it 
became ncccssar}- to reinforce Fort Taylor, a high military au- 
thority is ?aid to liave declared, that unless the act of habeas 
corpus were suspended in the section of the State where the fort 
now lies, every National soldier couhl be arrested by the rel)elp, 
nnder civil process, and tlie power of the National Government 
be put at absolute dehance. 13ut it was l)y some thought un- 
constitutional to suspend this act. Then it nuist be unconstitu- 
tional to uphold the Constitution, to oppose secession, or to put 
down rebellion. Let it be deemed unconstitutional, then, by 
those who hate Union and liberty ; it was none the less neces- 
sarv — absolutely and unconditionally necessary — and the Presi- 
dent, doubtless with some such view, signed the order for it 
with a full sense of his constitutional responsibility. But he is 
not yet justified in tliat act. or in any simihir acts, l)y the oppo- 
sition. Would God, would America, Avould the Future, should 
we, justify him, if, higgling on the point, he had sacrificed the 
national spirit, honor, life and hopes to the weak and empty 
scruples of others about tlie letter of the law? lie would in- 
deed have been a coward and a traitor to his country, if he had 
shrunk from that holy duty, of setting tlie law of national self- 
preservation above every other consideration, at that critical 
moment. Remember that the value of a living ruler is that he 
is alive, and can accommodate action to circumstances. We 
might as well have presiding over tiiis nation a Maelzel automa- 
ton, or I>al)bago's Calculator, wound \\\) by the Constitution to 
strike certain foregone conclusions, as to have a living repre- 
sentative of the ])cople — a man whose heart, conscience and will 
have their legitimate place in interpreting and applying the 
written law to the nation's exigencies — if these feeble notions 
of the absolute prcC'miuence in a civil war of every doubt 
or silence or uncertainty in a Constitution made for peace, 
are to prevail over the necessities of immediate and decisive 
action. 

But, ai^cr all, no plea is so specious and so dangerous among 
all those nnder which disloyaby seeks to conceal its fangs, as 
that wliich attempts to distinguish between the Administration 
and the Government. It is perfectly respectful to the Govern- 



12 UNCOXDITIOXAL LOYALTY. 

ment, for which it is ready to give life and treasure ; but the 
Administration is imbecile, is false, is destroying the liberties 
of the nation ; is without wisdom, or honesty, or success ! It is 
to be assailed, despised, resisted, and in every way obstructed, 
and this is all in the way of sound citizenship and in the exer- 
cise of inalienable rights — in the character of true and loyal 
Americans ! It is very like the plea of men who respect the 
marital relation, but have no allegiance to the wife of their 
bosom ; or of those who advocate honesty as a general prin- 
ciple, but make an exception in dealing with their own credi- 
tors ! Practically, everybody knows tliat the President is, for 
two years or more to come, the sole lawful head of this Nation, 
and his Cabinet, men of his own choice, the arbiters of our na- 
tional fate. Practically, what these men do or fail to do, through 
our furtherance or hindrance, settles the fate of this people for 
a generation, perhaps for ages to come. Practically, their sup- 
port, encouragement and invigoration, is the only possible method 
of putting forth our National strength and ability. Practically, 
to bring them into suspicion, contempt and distrust, is the great- 
est injury and peril our cause can suffer ! Practically, the rebel 
Congress can have no allies more worthy encouragement and 
pecuniary support, than the men here who attempt to weaken 
the confidence of the nation in their sole executive representa- 
tives ; to bring the high officers of the Government into disre- 
spect and contempt ; to make foreign Powers think us led by 
pigmies, governed by imliecilcs, counseled by knaves, divided 
among ourselves, and on the verge of despair ; our successes 
cheap, our prospects cloudy, our resources belittled, our zeal and 
determination dimmed and dwindled, our national will broken ; 
our Government despised, sneered at and distrusted by its own 
cliildron. Nor, alas ! is this wretched policy wholly confined to 
traitors. Loyal and honest men, in the pride of opinion, un- 
wittingly perform the traitor's work. Faithless, impatient, sup- 
erficial, mere partisans, or mere pettifoggers, or mere sectional- 
ists, or mere mediocrities, they assail the Administration be- 
cause the Administration does not take their advice, see things 
their way, jump to their conclusions, adopt their " isms," swal- 
low their panacea, or force it down the throat of the country. 



UNCONDITIOXAL LOYALTY. 13 

I was lately very miu'li struck l>y the remark of an lionest 
Now England radical Abolitionist, avIio stated to me with an 
evident expectation Ihat I should i-eceive it as a proof of tlio 
President's total lack of intelligence, tliat a Committee of tlic 
leading representatives of his sect had just waited on the Presi- 
dent, and had three hoiu's of conversation w iili him ; and that 
tliey had no evidence that they had produced the least effect on 
his mind ! As tliey were all very excellent and eloquent gen- 
tlemen, of their school, I confess I felt a new increase of respect 
for the President's tirnniess and many-sided wisdom ! I have 
too often had my own hasty views and wishes opposed and 
thwarted by the Administration and high officers, not to have 
learned that it does not prove them to be wrong that they do 
not nniformly agree with even their honest and earnest advi- 
sers ! And, taking advantage of whatever name lor frankness 
and simplicity, in speaking the nnrpialilied convictions of my 
own mind, I may here enjoy, I solemnly declare in the interests 
of the nation and cause, that, with more than ordinary oppor- 
tunities of seeing and practically co-working with the Govern- 
ment, every month of study of our Administration has given 
me a greater estimate of its integrity, ability and fitness to 
meet the crisis ; a higlier respect for the President ; a deeper 
persuasion that faith and confidence in him would be repaid by 
full success in our cause. I believe that the very common opin- 
ion that intestine quarrels rend the Cal)inet ; that no harmony 
of views or purposes prevails ; that tlie high officers distrust, 
and are jealous of each other ; tliat tlicy are chiefly animated 
by political ambition, or are saci-ificing the country to their own 
self-seeking objects, is a most entire and a most pernicious mis- 
take ; that the differences among them are honest and healthy 
differences, not touching vital points, and that their perjtlexities 
spring not from their own divisions, but from ours ; their lack 
of sharpness of policy to the blunted, because widely-extended, 
interests and wishes of a greatly scattered jteople. T believe 
no set of men ever lived, that were more idly, hastily and igno- 
rantly judged and abused, than our existing Administration ; 
that they need only to be closely and personally known to be 
wholly respected ; and that any general disaffection or distrust is 



14 UXCONDITIOXAL LOYALTY. 

caused wholly by the poisonous malaria sent up from the marshes 
of public prejudice, from the foul-mouthed calumnies of a portion 
of the public press, or the idle gossip of thoughtless story-tellers. 
When I think of the extent to which the falsest calumnies can 
go, without one particle of truth to travel on — things I personally 
know to ))G not only untrue, but the precise reverse of truth — 
I am in despair of correcting public prejudice. To take an 
illustration, below that of a Cabinet officer, whom I will not 
criticise — no man in the whole country, for instance, has suffered 
greater wrongs, from the causes alleged, than General McDowell 
— a wise and good man, a patriot and brave soldier, simply un- 
fortunate, but despised and hated as a traitor and a drunkard 
by millions, many of whom are not worthy to loose his shoe- 
latchet. This man, who has been styled a drunkard, on the 
most incontestible evidence, by men and women of the highest 
character, in my presence, I positively know never so much as 
touches a drop of intoxicating drink — is a total abstinent, and 
always has been so ! And I believe there are generals and 
Cabinet officers now under suspicion of drunkenness and opium- 
eating, and fraud and falsehood — on testimony that would hang 
a man in many courts — who are as innocent of each and every 
one of these charges as the purest man in this assembly. 

It is a reckless way of discussing the personal character of 
public men, in the press and in popular assemblies, that has led 
to this atrocious depreciation of men, whose characters and 
reputation ought at this time to be under the shield of every 
patriotic citizen's allegiance and gratitude. I am persuaded 
that it is a sacred duty to urge this point everywhere ; and I 
rejoice, that in the best faith in the world, I am able to begin 
a reform in this direction, at least in my own small sphere. I 
have from the beginning thought it my duty everywhere to sup- 
port the Government and to support the Administration as the 
practical representative of the Government. I think it your 
duty, your religious duty — the duty of every loyal citizen, and 
that no duty is so urgent and imperative at this moment, as to 
restore a well-deserved confidence to our President and his 
advisers. If they did not merit it in their personal character 
and talents, I should still claim that they deserved it in their 



UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 15 

official position! J]ut I verily ))L'liovo tlicy merit it in tlicir 
own persons, and only the more Avhcre tliey do not represent 
the partisan wishes of those of us who elected them. They 
came in a party-administration. Civil war has converted tliem 
into National patriots. The lightning of God has touched 
them, and rendered tlicm sacred. Yes ! Can we measure their 
trials, anxieties and difiieulties — the necessary sorrows and cares 
of tlicir vast and complicated rcspousiLility — and Ijc willing to 
add to tlicir burdens the needless grief of misinterpretation, 
slander, gossipping criticism and personal abuse ? A more 
ungrateful public was never known tlian that whicli could will- 
ingly assail the personal character of those slaves and conscripts 
of our public necessities — the present Government of the coun- 
try ! Let us reform our ways altogether ; begin a new style of 
speech aliout our public men in office. Let us support, encour- 
age, cheer and trust the Government. It is all they need to 
carfy us triumphantly through. 

Thus, brethren, do I commend to you the cause of uncondi- 
tional loyalty. I have pleaded it as a son })leading for a parent's 
life ! Would to God that none needed this earnest pleading more 
than you do. I know your hearts, and how warmly and cor- 
dially as a congregation you approve and practice upon these 
principles. I make you, then, the missionaries of them, where- 
ever you go, and with whomsoever you arc conversant. Let 
our women and children become the propagandists of uncondi- 
tional loyalty. The country needs not only the fealty of lier 
sons, but of her daughters also. Sing the songs of patriotic de- 
votion at your hearth-stones. Let your country have your ear- 
liest anil your latest prayers. Frown on every syllabic of dis- 
trust, of wavering, of disrespect, that pollutes the air you breathe. 
Require of all your friends to be first the friends of the nation ! 
Have nobody's love that does not love the country more ! Make 
a religion of patriotism. Let not the devotion of rebel fothers 
and mothers, of rebel sons and daugliters, shame your luke- 
warmness, your selfishness, your coward fears. If error and 
treason can find such willing, uncom})laining martyrs and pro- 
pagandists, what ouglit liberty, union, and lawful government 
to have ? It is this holy spirit of devotion on tiie part of the 



16 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 

whole people, this jealous patriotism, this unconditional loyalty 
that can alone save the land. Let it not be your fault if from 
this hour it does not prevail in every home, in every heart, in 
every place of business, in every church throughout this nation 
— struggling, as it is, for the most sacred and valuable rights 
of our common humanity, a lawful Government, and the right 
of Christianity and civilization to triumph over barbarism and 
Slavery. 



OF CONGRESS 




V 



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